ananda | The Hare Krishna Movement

Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, Is the Attraction for the All-Attractive / Hlādinī—Pleasure Potency

29 Jun 2014 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Caaitanya-caritamrta, Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta, Srimati Radharani, Vaisnava Vocabulary Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ananda, aradhana, blissfulness, cit, devi, gopis The Supreme Personality of Godhead, His devotees, hladini, hladini energy, hladini-shakti, hlādinī—pleasure potency, krsna mayi, Krsna pleasure, lovely abode of Lord Krsna, pleasure potency, Radha Radhika, resplendent and most beautiful, sat, sat cit ananda, worship

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This morning there was this nagging voice that kept saying “read Adi-lila chapter 4, of the Sri Caitanya-caritamrta” I haven’t read from the Caitanya-caritamrta for a while because I was re-reading the Bhagavad-gita and Krsna Book and because it is summer, I am busy with work. But today is Sunday and my time is a bit more relaxed. So I responded to the nagging voice…and pulled Vol. 1 from the shelf. As I read I became more and more enlivened and the words jumped out at me…. Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, who is the attraction for the all-attractive. What is attracting the All Attractive? Srimati Radharani!

And the other thing that jumped out at me was the word hlādinī. Here is another word for your vaishnava vocabulary. So today is a two part post from the Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, describing the hladini energy, and the attractiveness of Srimati Radharani.

Lord Kṛṣṇa enchants the world, but Śrī Rādhā enchants even Him. Therefore She is the supreme goddess of all. (Adi 4.95)

Śrī Rādhā is the full power, and Lord Kṛṣṇa is the possessor of full power. The two are not different, as evidenced by the revealed scriptures. (Adi 4.96)

Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is as fully spiritual as Kṛṣṇa. No one should consider Her to be material. She is definitely not like the conditioned souls, who have material bodies, gross and subtle, covered by material senses. She is all-spiritual, and both Her body and mind are of the same spiritual embodiment. Because Her body is spiritual, Her senses are also spiritual. Thus Her body, mind and senses fully shine in love of Kṛṣṇa. She is the personified hlādinī-śakti (the pleasure-giving energy of the Lord’s internal potency), and therefore She is the only source of enjoyment for Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa cannot enjoy anything that is internally different from Him. Therefore Rādhā and Śrī Kṛṣṇa are identical. The sandhinī portion of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s internal potency has manifested the all-attractive form of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and the same internal potency, in the hlādinī feature, has presented Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, who is the attraction for the all-attractive. No one can match Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī in the transcendental pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. (from purport Adi 4.71)

…All the desires of Lord Kṛṣṇa rest in Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. (from purport)

Some notes on the hlādinī potency More

The Pleasure (ānanda) Potency of the Lord

22 Feb 2014 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Ananda, Spiritual World Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, all-pervasive, ananda, Bg 18.55, bhagavad-gita, bhakta, Brahman realization, impersonalist, jnani, Lord in the heart, mystics, Paramatma, pleasure potency, pure devotees, SB 2.10.44, Srimad Bhagavatam, the devotee, the impersonalist, the meditator, transcendental humors, Vaikuntha planets, yogi

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This morning as I was finishing the Tenth Chapter of the Second Canto, the following verse and purport jumped out at me from the pages. And I realized for the thousandth time, what great good fortune we have in that we can hear directly from the pure devotee of the Lord, about the eternal pastimes of the Lord, through the pages of the Srimad Bhagavatam.

Of the three types of Transcendentalist’s, namely the jñānī, the yogī and the bhakta, or the impersonalist, the meditator and the devotee. It is only the devotee who can factually know the Lord as He is and thus be trained in the bona fide service of the Lord and be allowed to enter into the direct association of the Lord in so many capacities. The highest glorious association with the Lord is made possible in the planet of Goloka Vṛndāvana, where Lord Kṛṣṇa enjoys Himself with the gopīs and His favorite animals, the surabhi cows.

… The impersonalist is satisfied simply by understanding the all-pervasive influence of the Lord. This is called Brahman realization. Greater than the impersonalist is the mystic who sees the Lord situated in his heart as Paramātmā, the partial representation of the Lord. But there are pure devotees who take part in the direct pleasure (ānanda) potency of the Lord by factual reciprocation of loving service. The Lord in His abode called the Vaikuṇṭha planets, which are eternal manifestations, always remains with His associates and enjoys transcendental loving services by His pure devotees in different transcendental humors.

So we are pleased to present the following Texts and Purports More

The Festival’s Inspiration

11 Jul 2013 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Festivals, Ratha-yatra Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ananda, Back to Godhead Magazine, BTG, cit, Festival in San Franscisco's Glden Gate Park, festival of the chariots, Jagannatha, Jagannatha's Ratha-yatra, sat, Srila Prabhupada, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

The Festival’s Inspiration
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine Vol 13, No. 6, 1978

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada brought the ancient Indian Ratha-yatra, the Festival of the Chariots, to the West in 1967. That year Srila Prabhupada held the festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, and it quickly caught on all over the world. In 1969, at the third San Francisco festival, Srila Prabhupada spoke these words:

“My dear American boys and girls, I thank you very much for your taking part in this great festival known as Lord Jagannatha’s Ratha-yatra. This festival has been held every year for the last two thousand years or more in India, and in your country perhaps this is the third year we have held this great Ratha-yatra festival. We are also holding this festival in Boston, London, New York, and Columbus. The purpose for this Krsna consciousness movement is to invoke your dormant love for Jagannatha, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Every one of us—not only human beings but every living entity including birds, beasts, and aquatics—is part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And just like a son has the right to inherit the property of his father, so we have the prerogative to achieve the status of our father, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This status is called sac-cid-ananda-vigraha, Sat means ‘eternal,’ cit means ‘complete in knowledge,’ ananda means ‘bliss,’ and vigraha means ‘person.’ As we are all persons, so the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also a person, but He is very, very great. And He being the greatest, He supplies the needs of all other individual persons. We have a relationship with Lord Jagannatha, and we are meant to participate in His qualities of eternity, knowledge, and bliss.

“This inauguration of the Ratha-yatra festival will bring a new chapter in the history of the world—it is that potent. It is stated in the Vedic literature that anyone who sees Lord Jagannatha seated on this chariot will never again have to take birth within this miserable material world.”

Sat-cit-ānanda / Eternal, Full of Knowledge, and Bliss

26 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Sat-cit-ananda, Vaisnava Vocabulary Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ananda, eternal, jubilation, knowledge, knowledge and blissful, pleasure, sat cit ananda

This morning while reading I came across the words sat-cit-ānanda. Many of us, we know what the words mean, but have we realized the meaning yet? Do we truly understand what it means to be eternal, full of knowledge and blissfull? I thought I would do a search on the phrase “sac-cid-ānanda” and see how this was explained by Srila Prabhupada.

Cit means knowledge, sat means eternal, and bliss means full of jubilation, ānanda, pleasure. (from lectures)

Because we are spirit soul, our position is ānandamāyā. Ānandamāyā means always blissful. Because we are part and parcel of God… God is blissful, all-good, sac-cid-ānanda…Sat means eternal, and cit means full of knowledge, and ānanda means full of bliss. So we are part and parcel of God. Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva bhūtaḥ: BG 15.7 “All these living entities, they are My part and parcel.” So if Kṛṣṇa is sat-cit-ānanda, then we are also sat-cit-ānanda, because we are part. Just like gold and a gold, small particle. That is also gold.

…Part is never equal to the whole. But quality is the same. Therefore we, being part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, we are trying to utilize our original constitutional position. This is going on. But we are doing that without Kṛṣṇa at the present moment. Therefore it is not successful. Part must remain with the whole. I have given this example many times, that a small screw of typewriter or any machine, it must remain with the whole machine. Then it has value. If it is out of the machine, there is no value. A small screw in the motorcar, so long it is with the motorcar, it has got value. And as soon as it is thrown out of the motorcar, it has no value. (Lecture on the Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.9 given Detroit, August 3, 1975, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada)

It is interesting to note that Srila Prabhupada used this phrase ‘sat cit ananda’, 41 times in Lectures, 5 times in Letters, and can be found is his books. Some of the usage is as follows: More

Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā (The Govindam Prayers)

19 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Brahma-samhita, Brahma-samhita, Govindam Prayers, Prayers & Verses, Sri Brahma-samhita Tags: ananda, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Brahma, brahma samihita, cit, eternal blissful spiritual body, Govindam Prayers, isvarah, isvarah paramak krsna, Krishna Govinda, Lord Brahma, Lord Krsna, sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah, sat, Sri Brahma-samhita, supreme, Supreme Godhead, the controller, vigrahah

The Govindam Prayers
From Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā
By His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura

This collection is taken from the fifth chapter of the Hymns of Brahma, and includes verse 1, and 29-56. There were 100 chapters in the Brahma Samhita. This 5th chapter of the Brahma Samhita was discovered by Lord Caitanya during His appearance. The other chapters have not yet been revealed.

Attaining the Supreme

03 Aug 2012 1 Comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Bhagavad-gita, Death and Dying, Practicing Krishna Consciousness at Home Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ananda, anta-kale ca mam eva, Arjuna, asat, Attaining the Supreme, Bg 8.5, chanting Hare Krishna, cit, death, He attains My nature, Krishna, Krishna's form, Krishna's names, material activities, nirananda, quits his body, remembering Me alone, sac-cid-ananda-vigraha, sat

Next, one may raise the question of how one goes about approaching that abode of the Supreme Lord. Information of this is given in the Eighth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita. It is said there:

And whoever, at the time of death, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.

Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.

Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Kṛṣṇa and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.

…This instruction to Arjuna is very important for all men engaged in material activities. The Lord does not say that one should give up his prescribed duties or engagements. One can continue them and at the same time think of Kṛṣṇa by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. This will free one from material contamination and engage the mind and intelligence in Kṛṣṇa. By chanting Kṛṣṇa’s names, one will be transferred to the supreme planet, Kṛṣṇaloka, without a doubt.